THE 

AG OF TRUCK. 



DEDICATED 

TO * V 8 • 

VIPKROE OF THE FRENCH. 



BY 

A "WHITE REPUBLICAN. 



T.OY ;)()\ 



THE 

FLAG OF TRUCE. 



DEDICATED 

TO 

THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. 



BY 

A WHITE REPUBLICAN. 



LONDON : 
JAMES EIDGTWAY, PICCADILLY, W. 
1862. 



.8 



By Transfer 

NOV 11 1922 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



It is not necessary to enter into any ethnological specu- 
lations in regard to the origin of man in order to define 
his social relations. No matter whether we have sprung 
from one Adam or five ; whether descended from angels, 
or ascended from zoophytes : are we not all the offspring 
of God ; and does not a common parentage establish a 
common brotherhood ? Upon this broad basis, as upon 
the primary foundation of the earth, all our reasoning 
rests ; and from it all our theories spring touching the 
rights and duties of the individual — the laws and relations 
of society. In this simple formula, like the oak in the 
acorn, lie all our hopes of the fraternity of man, the 
amity of nations, "the federation of the world." And 
what, let us first inquire is the natural state, the normal 
condition of man — is it peace, or is it war between himself 
and nature ; between himself and his fellow man ? The 
verb To Be is the first word to be conjugated ; the first 

a 2 



4 THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 

conquest to achieve ; or, reduced to an aphorism, " self- 
preservation is the first law of nature." The primal 
necessity of existence is food : for this the first desire is 
felt — the first effort of the infant is made — the first battle 
of life is fought. All after wars are but amplified varia- 
tions of that first great cause of grief, beginning in the 
faint cry of the cradle, and culminating in the clamour of 
the battle-field. In the animal world one race preys upon 
another (not like man, upon his own). Great fish devour 
the little ones (but not of their own species), and it seems 
to be ordained by the economy of nature that millions 
must die that one may live. In his savage state we see 
the fierce and naked man as a warrior rudely armed, ready 
to kill not only beings of his own race, but even of his 
own tribe, who stand between him and his animal appe- 
tites. For an offence somewhat more refined the first-born 
son of man murders his brother, and thus begins the 
never-ending strife which all good men lament ; while all 
the world have become more or less partakers of the origi- 
nal crime : 

" A brother's murder ! 
It Lath, the primal, eldest curse upon it." 

And yet, there are few hands, however white, or holy, 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 5 

entirely free from the fratricidal stain. The food we eat, 
the garments we wear, the luxuries we enjoy are too often 
but the spoils of war purchased with human blood. 

Among barbarous tribes, a state of war seems to be in 
accordance with the lower law of nature ; and, if in har- 
mony with nature, we must find no fault with its opera- 
tions, but call it right. The lion fights to obtain food for 
his whelps, and the lioness fights in defending them from 
the hunter. Man, the savage, obeys the same instinct. 
But with the development and cultivation of his moral 
nature his savageness disappears, or is subdued ; and the 
code of blood gives place to the Commandments of Rea- 
son ; to be followed in the fulness of time by that higher 
law of Christian Love, heralded by the angels of God, 
announcing the end of war upon the earth ; and proclaim- 
ing the reign of peace and goodwill among men. Since the 
promise of that heavenly harbinger, which summoned the 
sages of the East to receive the new dispensation, two 
thousand years have rolled around, and yet the glad tidings 
hailed with hosannas in the skies, filling the hearts of Beth- 
lehem shepherds with joy are not yet fulfilled ! There is 
not peace on earth ; there is not good will among men. The 
red tide of human blood still continues to flow, widening 



G 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



and deepening with "the process of the sun." Alas, that 
we must confess that the tide is fiercest, and the deluge 
deepest among nations calling themselves Christian, 
whose people are the professed followers of the Prince of 
Peace ; and who continue to baptize their children in His 
name ! And more shockingly paradoxical yet, in the very 
name of Him who commanded his impetuous disciple to 
" put up his sword M the deadliest wars are waged \ while 
the history of Christianity — a Book of Martyrdom written 
in crimson, continues to be read without a blush ! Bro- 
thers nursed at the same breast, baptized at the same 
font, partakers of the same sacrament go to war with one 
another, while the bystanders look on in cold "neutrality," 
forbidden to interfere by the laws of nations, or the eti- 
quette of Courts ! 

It will be readily seen from these preliminary sugges- 
tions, that in considering the question of international 
rights and duties, we shall be compelled to take strong 
ground against the War policy — a policy originating in 
the lowest instincts of uncivilized man ; and which, under 
all its forms, and whatever its purpose is in direct anta- 
gonism to the higher impulses, and nobler inspirations of 
the religion of Christianity—by whose golden rules of 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 7 

benevolence and philanthropy the great nations of Europe 
and America profess to be governed, not only in their 
domestic polity, but in all their foreign intercourse and 
relations. Taking the " Sermon on the Mount" as the 
sum and essence of all human wisdom, we must begin by 
denouncing all offensive war, not only as an evil but a sin ; 
not only as a sin but a crime, for which there is no name 
but its own — War. And yet we can hardly adopt the 
non-resistance doctrine, which meekly offers the right 
cheek to the ruffian who has smitten us on the left ; nor 
that impoverishing charity that gives a coat to the thief 
who has stolen our cloak. All nature resents an injury ; 
the worm turns in self-defence against the foot that 
crushes it. Between aggressive and defensive war there 
is all the moral difference that lies between right and 
wrong, justice and injustice ; or whatever terms we choose 
to use in designating and discriminating between good and 
evil. 

Our present purpose is to cast a summary glance at the 
earth as it is, with its one thousand million of human 
inhabitants, divided into races, and subdivided into na- 
tions; and consider the relations they hold, and the 
duties they owe to each other both in peace and in war. 



8 THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 

The map of the world is spread out before us, with the 
geographical limits of all the Great Powers, and the Lesser 
Powers duly defined thereon. Some are separated by 
oceans, some by mountains, some by rivers, others by 
" narrow friths," or only invisible lines ; with different 
languages, customs, religions, and governments. The 
subject, it will be admitted, is a comprehensive one; but 
what is law for one should be law for all, and to discover 
and determine more especially the international laws and 
relations between Europe and America is all we shall 
venture to attempt in the space we purpose to occupy. 
To do this we need not refer to Wheaton or Vattel, or to 
any other authority on the " Laws of Nations," but rather 
to the common understanding of the people who make 
the laws (or who think they do), and to the policy of the 
Powers that break them. 

The United States of America (it seems ironical to 
continue to call them United States) present at this 
moment the sad spectacle of Civil War on a larger scale 
than the world has ever before witnessed — literally " the 
bloodiest picture in the book of Time." The causes of 
the contest we do not stop to consider ; and the result, 
no " latter day prophet" may venture to predict. The ques- 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



9 



tion of questions now is, what action shall Europe, and 
more especially France and England, take in regard to the 
belligerents ? in other words, what are the duties which 
one nation owes to another in a state of war, particularly 
in a state of civil or internecine war ? The answer to this 
inquiry is obvious, and the logic easily understood. War 
being an evil, a waste, a loss, a destruction to the parties 
engaged in it, it is evidently for their interest to come to 
terms and make peace at the earliest possible moment ; 
to cease killing each other, and to commence nego- 
tiating or reasoning. It follows, therefore, that the 
European Powers, even were they not strongly urged by 
self-interest to interfere in the contest, would only be 
doing their duty in a philanthropic, neighbourly way by 
exerting all their influence, moral, political, and commer- 
cial in favour of peace. Lord Eussell and Lord Palmer- 
ston personally deplore the existence of the war, but 
officially refuse to interfere, because they tell us, such an 
act of friendship would involve England in the common 
calamity ; and self-interest is the first law of nations as 
well as of nature. But suppose that the spirit of Chris- 
tianity sat enthroned to-day, invested with the sceptre of 
all the Caesars or that the Emperor of the French, for in- 



10 THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 

stance, who probably wields more power for good or ill 
than any man who ever lived, should suddenly decide to 
imbue his " Napoleonic ideas " with the doctrines of the 
" Beatitudes," and propose to all the nations of the earth 
that they should " learn the art of war no more that 
swords should be beaten into ploughshares, spears into 
pruning-hooks ; that all war-vessels and fortifications 
should be dismantled , all cannon spiked ; all powder mills 
destroyed ; and all the armies and navies of the world at 
once disbanded ! Might not the disarmed nations conti- 
nue to live in peace and harmony, with no more fears of 
foreign invasion or internal revolution ? Instead of all 
this costly competition in providing instruments of death 
might they not with better reason and even greater secu- 
rity devote their energies and their treasures to the culti- 
vation of the peaceful arts, to the general welfare and 
happiness of the human race ? The idea, we know, is 
extremely Utopian, so is Christianity ; but the proposition 
to disarm the nations must come, sooner or later, from the 
€i Powers that Be," or the religion of Peace is an admitted 
failure. At the present moment who so able to propose 
and carry into effect the universal amnesty of nations as 
the Emperor of the French, whose nod is peace or war to 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 11 

Europe ; or perhaps the movement might come with a still 
better grace from the Queen of England — a Christian, 
peace-loving woman, whose lawful and loyal subjects 
number 200,000,000, comprising one-fifth of the entire 
human race. 

To return from this incidental speculation, which, how- 
ever poetic and dreamy it may seem to this age of iron 
ships and Armstrong guns, is nevertheless a suggestion 
worthy of serious consideration, let us look a little more 
particularly into the actual state of things ; and consider 
what is best to be done in order to put an end to this un- 
natural strife in America, which all the world is deprecat- 
ing, and from which all Europe is suffering. With all 
due deference to the diplomatic caution of European Cabi- 
nets, we do not believe in the policy of coolly looking on 
with folded arms while a young and powerful member of 
the family of nations, in a fit of passion, is tearing its own 
flesh, and rending its own limbs asunder. International 
duty is not discharged by assuming an attitude of calm 
and complacent neutrality. Something more is due to the 
combatants than to form a sort of sportsman's ring, and 
insist on fair play. "When the courage and the skill of the 
parties has been proved, and their strength and manhood 



12 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE, 



fully tested, non-interference on tlie part of the witnesses 
to the mortal combat is to become particeps criminis in the 
eye of the common law. Let them be recognized and treated 
as equals, invited to shake hands and separate in peace. 

Pair play is a phrase much used by Englishmen, and 
even in pugilistic encounters a fair fight and no favour is 
strenuously demanded. In the great contest between the 
North and the South, the recognition of both parties as 
belligerents, entitled to equal rights, was undoubtedly in- 
tended as an application of the fair play principle to the 
parties at war. But in order to place the North and the 
South on a footing of equality, the ports and markets of 
the world should be equally open to each. If the laws, 
treaties and agreements of nations prevent the supply of 
articles contraband of war to either party by foreign mer- 
chants in foreign vessels, still the North has the vast advan- 
tage of purchasing powder, lead, rifles, swords, guns, and all 
other instruments of death in all the marts of Europe ; 
while the South, shut out from all the world, depends en- 
tirely upon its own resources for means of defence, extem- 
porising the manufacture of arms and munitions of war, 
instead of importing them ready made from abroad. To 
respect the Blockade is, in effect, to take part with the 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 13 

North against the South— with the strong (numerically) 
against the weak — with the invader against the invaded. 
Is this the boasted fair play of non-intervention ? Why, 
even in a cock-fight the gallant bird that loses his spur is 
immediately taken from the pit in accordance with the cry 
of the spectators, and not permitted to renew the contest 
until supplied with weapons equal in length and sharpness 
to those of his antagonist. These diplomatic sticklers for 
non-interference with the deadly struggle in America for- 
cibly remind one of the impartiality of the old woman in 
Oregon, who, when she saw her husband fighting with a 
bear, only " prayed for fair play, not caring a fig which 
licked." 

If there are times when " England expects every man 
to do his duty/' there are also times when every man ex- 
pects England to do her duty ; although, perhaps, this 
sturdy little word may not be found in the velvet vocabu- 
lary of diplomacy. But if we regard the nations of the 
earth simply as families, whose common welfare is best 
promoted by friendly intercourse and the interchange of 
neighbourly relations, surely it is not only the duty, but 
the interest of all to keep the peace of all. And if Eng- 
land, as she proudly claims, stands at the very head of the 



14 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



world in respect to age, intelligence and power ; if she be 
indeed wliat she professes, the most enlightened, the most 
humane, and the most Christian nation on the earth, let 
her assume her right of precedence in the move for media- 
tion ; and in the broad name of humanity demand a cessa- 
tion of hostilities in the reeking and reeling Republic over 
the sea. The voice of the British Empire — an empire on 
which the sun never sets, and the roll of the reveille never 
ceases — that voice coming like a note of celestial music 
from the lips of the peace-loving Queen, would be heard by 
listening hearts even amid the roar and the storm of battle. 

But Governments, they tell us, must move gently and 
gingerly. The voice of duty is no authority for kings and 
cabinets. What says the " Law of Nations ?" What are 
the permissions and the impediments of international 
treaties ? Blockades must be respected — if effective. 
Nations must not interfere with each other's internal 
affairs^especially with their difficulties. People must take no 
part in the quarrels of their neighbours, even though some 
brutal Butler living next door has his wife by the hair and 
is beating her to death ! But if the Statute Law restrains 
the more generous promptings of humanity ; if red-tape 
compacts prevent interference, there is surely no law to 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 15 

prohibit governments from expressing opinions, uttering 
protests or making appeals in behalf of peace and the stay 
of slaughter ; and this quite harmless, entirely legal sort 
of moral intervention on the part of European Powers 
would prove more effective than any other means of bring- 
ing the War in America to an end. It is no uncommon 
thing, when the angry passions are aroused, for parties to 
keep on quarrelling against their convictions, almost against 
their will; and only want some good excuse for laying 
down their arms. The combatants in America are so deeply 
immersed in blood, that, like the murderers in Macbeth, 
u Should they wade no more, 
Returning were as tedious as to go o'er." 

We believe there are tens of thousands of men now 
drawn out in battle array both in the North and in the 
South who " have no stomach for this fight." Both sides 
have had enough of blood and carnage ; and they would 
rejoice to quit the field if they could do so with honour, 
and by acting under good advice. The precise form and 
manner and moment of offering this advice is the delicate 
point to be overcome. But let us suppose that all the 
Great Powers of Europe were to make their united appeal 
to the North and the South, jointly, to " cease firing," 



16 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



consent to an armistice, and appoint Commissioners to 
settle their difficulties. The moral weight of such an 
appeal might overcome all the objections raised by pride 
or passion, and by its very gravity and dignity subdue the 
belligerents into a state of calm reflection conducive to 
peace. Is not the experiment worth trying ? We put 
the question most respectfully and most earnestly to the 
crowned and thoughtful heads of Europe. The party re- 
pudiating such wise and benevolent counsel would place 
itself at once in the wrong, and forfeit even the sympathy 
of its friends. 

But we confess to little hope of seeing the nations mov- 
ing for mediation from a sense of duty. Self-interest is 
the main-spring of governments as well as of individuals. 
Let us accept the facts as we find them, and consider, for 
a moment, if it be not for the interest, almost the vital 
interest of England, especially, to put an end to this suici- 
dal war in America. We have small belief in the asser- 
tion, often uttered, that the Monarchies of the Old World, 
jealous of the Great Republic of the New, have for years 
been plotting and scheming for its destruction. There 
are publicists who even insist that the rupture of the 
Union originated in Russia, a country always on the most 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 17 

friendly* terms with the United States ; and it is charged 
that ex-President Buchanan, who, when Minister at St. 
Petersburgh, was first let into the secret, was subsequently 
used as a tool by the Czar to aggravate the Secession 
movement and bring on the war. The motive ascribed to 
Russia is purely a financial one — simply the grain ques- 
tion, amounting to some £30,000,000 a year ! It is also 
constantly asserted and very generally believed by the 
lower classes in America that England is the root of all 
the mischief ! that British gold has corrupted Republican 
integrity, bribed Republican legislators, subsidized Re- 
publican Administrations ; and that the cockatrice's egg of 
Secession was laid in Downing- street, and hatched at 
the White House in Washington. Not only the Court, 
the Cabinet, and the Parliament of England have con- 
spired to destroy the Union, but English manufacturers, 
whose profits are impinged by Northern Tariffs, have 
joined the grand cabal in instigating the South to rebel- 
lion, accepting drafts from the " Cotton Lords " for un- 
limited amounts in order to give aid to the Secession 
cause ! France, we believe, has not yet been inculpated 
as an abettor of the great rebellion. 

The charges against England being more plausible and 

B 



18 



THE FLAG OY TRUCE. 



more generally credited than any other in regard to what 
are called "the machinations of foreign governments/' 
we shall commence by denying the justice of the accusa- 
tions, and proceed to examine a little critically into the 
causes of their credibility. In the first place, although 
England and the United States have long been at peace, 
and while commercial and social intercourse between the 
countries is all the while increasing, there is no disguising 
the fact that a very large class of people in America cherish 
and inculcate a most intense anti-British feeling. Among 
the descendants of the soldiers of the Revolution, and the 
survivors of the war of 1812-15 this animosity is heredi- 
tary and natural. It takes a century to obliterate the 
cicatrices of war. A far more malignant type of the 
disease of Anglo-phobia has been imported into America 
from Ireland. The feeling of enmity towards England 
among the native citizens was fast fading out; and on 
the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales the 
"hatchet was buried"; the " calumet smoked"; and 
" God save the Queen " promised to become almost as 
popular in the theatres of New York as in the concert- 
rooms of London. But on that very occasion the animus 
of the Emerald Islanders was signally shown by the 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 19 

refusal of Colonel Corcoran (now prisoner at Richmond) 
who then commanded an Irish Regiment, to parade in 
honour of the son of England's Queen — the heir to 
England's throne ! While five hundred thousand en- 
thusiastic Americans lined Broadway, waiting from 
10 o'clock in the morning until dark, to catch a passing 
glimpse of Royalty, and to swell the huzzas that greeted 
his coming ; while from every drawing room in the Fifth 
Avenue floated the sweet song, " We love him for his 
mother's sake," — Irishmen only skulked sulkily into the 
background, muttering in the old style — " England's 
necessity shall be Ireland's opportunity ! " And Irish- 
men now, more than any other people, swell the ranks of 
the army of the North in its crusade against the South. 
To conquer Canada and revolutionize England is the 
second part of their programme. 

The wholesale charge that America hates England is 
not entirely true ; neither is it just, when speaking for the 
whole nation, to say that England hates America* Na- 
tionalities never love or hate as units ; all the friendship 
and all the enmity existing between them is to be found 
in classes and individuals. In America, in addition to the 
anti-British elements we have indicated, there is also a 

b 2 



20 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



strong commercial rivalry between the manufacturing 
interests of the two countries. The mills of Lowell com- 
pete with the mills of Manchester ; while protective tariffs 
in the United States conflict with England's theory of 
fair play. But these are peaceful rivalries, involving no 
ill-feeling, and threatening no unpleasant results. In the 
fair field of literature, and the beautiful arts, there is 
still less to fear from national competition ; on the con- 
trary, there is still more to hope from the generous 
emulation of rival nations. When legislatures shall be 
controlled by that high sense of justice which guarantees 
to the men who think, and to the men who invent, the 
legitimate fruits of their labour and their skill — protecting 
the rights of the higher kind of property as well as the 
lower — there will no longer be cause of complaint on 
either side of the Atlantic, of that popular but infamous 
system of brain-theft by which publishers are enriched 
and authors are impoverished. The Harpers of America 
fatten on Dickens and Carlyle ; and the harpies of Eng- 
land thrive on Irving and Prescott. To republish an 
author's works without his permission and supervision, is 
not only a wrong but a crime, greater even than the 
stealing of his purse, as often, through error of print, or 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 21 

carelessness of translation, he is robbed even of his good 
name by the clumsiness of the felonious fingers through 
which he is compelled to pass. But from larcenies of this 
sort there is little danger of war between England and 
the United States. Let some lawless Yankee skipper, 
however, board an English fishing boat off Newfoundland, 
and steal the captain's compass or the cook's kettle, and 
the British Minister of Foreign Affairs would be promptly 
called upon to resent the wrong, to demand an apology, 
the restitution of the stolen property; and, in case of 
refusal, to issue a declaration of war. But no redress is 
sought for these grosser robberies perpetually perpetrated 
by American pirates upon English brains ; because there 
exists no international law for the protection of the most 
sacred of all property — the creations of the human mind, 
the inventions of human genius ! And without the aid of 
law, crime will ever go " unwhipt of justice." 

But there is still another class in America whose opi- 
nions and prejudices must be taken into account in order 
to arrive at a more just estimate of the genuine republican 
feeling in regard to the social and political institutions of 
England. We do not know how better to characterize 
this radical school of the Ci fierce democracy" than by 



22 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



calling them king-haters. The very name of " Monarchy" 
drives them mad ; and could they succeed in getting toge- 
ther a " World's Convention" for the revision of the Bible, 
as certain " reformers" have proposed, the " Book of 
Kings'' would be speedily voted into the u Apocrypha." 
They look upon the " effete monarchies of Europe" as 
grand and glittering icebergs, chilling all the atmosphere 
around them, rudderlessly floating, gradually diminishing, 
and inevitably sinking into the sea of oblivion. They 
hate the whole system of Royalty, root and branch ; and 
despise all the artificial distinctions of ranks and orders 
which surround and support it. They ridicule the idea of 
a patent, titular nobility, and all its attendant flunkeyism, 
powdered, pampered, and bewigged ; while the rules of so- 
cial precedence, based upon ancestry, title, or Act of Par- 
liament strike the pure democracy of America as an outrage 
upon the dignity of man, — an offence against God, who 
has stamped on every brow the degree of nobility, or 
ignobility to which it is entitled ; and fixed the rank of 
each by those high heraldic signs of nature which no 
Court or King on earth can counterfeit. They insist upon 
an aristocracy of intellect, not of ribbons ; and would 
reverse the order of precedence laid down in the " Peer- 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 23 

age/ 5 which, in dividing the people of England into one 
hundred and fifty-eight classes, places such men as Wil- 
liam Shakspere and Alfred Tennyson in the one hundred 
and fifty-fourth, leaving only four grades below them : 
yeomen, tradesmen, artificers, and labourers ! It is need- 
less to add that this school of theoretical democratics, 
whether of the Black republican or of the Red republican 
stripe, bears no love to England, or to any other country 
maintaining monarchical institutions. It embraces active 
and ardent politicians of the most radical and agrarian 
tendencies, and they are always among the most clamorous 
advocates for war. They have been mainly instrumental 
in precipitating the disastrous war between the North and 
the South, which is regarded by them as only a sort of 
preparatory, monytechnic school, in which the great army 
of the Republic is training and strengthening itself for the 
grand encounter with foreign nations, daily threatened by 
the New York press, and sure to come at no distant period. 
The universal Yankee nation, they boast, is yet bound to 
" lick all creation." And then those " baubles" of Roy- 
alty, the crowns of Europe, are to be tossed about like 
shuttle-cocks by the mighty battle-doers of America ! 
Inspired by the arrogant ambition of the " Munroe doc- 



24 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



trine/' they dream of annexing Canada, Cuba, and Mexico 
(they have already a mortgage on the latter country) ; 
and woe to the European Power that presumes to stand in 
the way of "manifest destiny." Mr. Seward's policy and 
plans of national aggrandisement are all condensed in the 
oft-repeated couplet : — 

" JNo pent up Utica contracts our powers ; 
But the whole boundless continent is ours !" 

With these eliminations of American principles and 
purposes, the " rotten dynasties of Europe," as they are 
called by Fourth-of- July orators, may have a foretaste of 
the broth that is brewing for them on the democratic side 
of the Atlantic. The shadows of coming events, like the 
penumbra of an eclipse, have already touched the shores 
of England with a palpable chill ; and the great law of 
self-preservation is beginning to operate. The British 
Government is thoroughly awake to the necessity of arm- 
ing at all points — preparing for the evil to come 

But it is not our purpose to join in the cry " to arms 
we would rather persuade the nations to disarm themselves, 
to throw away their swords and muskets and enter into 
the holy alliance of peace upon the platform of Christian 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



~5 



brotherhood. We have shown the existence of the war feel- 
ing in America only that it mar be the better controlled, 
or neutralized ; not that the fever may be counteracted by 
exciting a similar irritation in Europe. The war cloud in 
the West is heavy and dark ; but with the right sort of 
conductors the deadly element may be safely discharged ; 
and the bow of peace, like a " covenant in the skies," 
again assure us that the red deluge is past, and that the 
sweet harvests of life shall no more be blasted by the de- 
solating storms of war. 

To resume the consideration of international relations 
in time of peace, and the rights and duties by which 
peaceful relations are best maintained. It was the maxim 
of Washington, &t In time of peace prepare for war ;' ; and 
all the nations of the earth are acting in accordance with 
this prudent precept. But such has been the progress of 
military science in what is popularly termed the art of 
war, and so equalized have the nations become by the 
employment of equal weapons, that absolute invulnerable- 
ness to the attacks of an enemy bids fair to render all 
hostile demonstrations not only useless, but ridiculous. 
The " Monitors" and " Merrimacs" of our navies may be 
so encased in impenetrable iron that a fight between them. 



26 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



instead of being dangerous, becomes simply ludicrous. 
Like a couple of knights u clad in complete steel," hack- 
ing at each other with swords without being able to inflict 
the smallest injury, they would only amuse the bystanders 
with the mockery of a " sham fight." It is not impossi- 
ble that through the very perfection of the implements of 
war the nations may yet come to laugh at the absurdity of 
throwing egg-shells at each other from the u turrets" of 
iron houses, and thus be led, by common consent, in view 
of their own folly, to convert all instruments of death 
into implements of agriculture, or any other culture con- 
ducive to the general welfare and happiness of man. This, 
indeed, were a " consummation devoutly to be wished 
and, Utopian as it may seem to the multitude employed in 
fabricating war-ships and armour, and to the sorely taxed 
people who are paying for the same, the dawn of another 
era may possibly be nearer than we dream. Whenever 
the popular current sets in for universal peace, the strife 
among the nations will be to see which can melt up 
cannon fastest. 

In the meantime, what is the policy to be inculcated, 
best adapted to preserve the peace and amity of the na- 
tions, to promote the friendly intercourse and brotherhood 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 27 

of man ? We begin by declaring Free Trade to be a pri- 
mary condition, an absolute necessity to a good under- 
standing between the Powers and the Peoples of the 
earth. 

All tariff's, or import and export taxes, are wrong in theory 
and unjust in practice. Taxing one class to protect ano- 
ther is one of the fundamental fallacies of that narrow- 
minded school of economists, whose logic begins and ends 
in selfishness. A direct tax levied upon person or pro- 
perty is the most honest tax a State can impose upon its 
citizens. All other forms of taxation are scarcely better 
than subterfuges. And as for legislative protection to 
special interests, the simple statement of the proposition 
sufficiently indicates its injustice. The laws of nature, as 
well as the laws of trade, regulate both products and 
prices on the single basis of supply and demand ; while 
different countries and climates widely distant from the 
great markets of the world, will each contribute the article 
it can produce best and cheapest without legislative aid, 
and in spite of legislative hindrance. The cotton of the 
Confederacy; the sugar of Cuba; the tea of China; the 
wine of France ; and the leather of Russia will continue to 
find their way to London against all competition, however 



28 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



protected by legislative enactment. Manufactured goods 
are also subject to the same commercial laws. Manchester 
machinery is perfect, and Manchester labour is cheap \ 
therefore, give its manufacturers the fair play of free trade, 
and they can defy competition even in the remotest mar- 
kets of the world ; and this, too, after paying for the trans- 
portation of the raw material from the uttermost parts of 
the earth and the sea. In New England, labour is dearer, 
and machinery less perfect ; therefore New England insists 
on a protective tariff to enable her to compete with Man- 
chester. But instead of listening to this plea for legisla- 
tive interference to make up the difference, the Govern- 
ment should tell New England to go to work at something 
else ; to stick to shoe-making, if she cannot make both 
ends meet at calico-making. " Ne sutor ultra crepidam" 
is a motto as appropriate for Massachusetts manufacturers 
as for their special pleader, Wilson, in the Senate Cham- 
ber at Washington. Illinois raises wheat and cattle with- 
out any fostering by Congress ; Virginia, tobacco ; South 
Carolina, rice ; Georgia and Alabama, cotton. Is there 
nothing New England can do for a living without going 
to Washington for a subsidy ? Better go a fishing, than 
to continually go begging for protection, in order, as her 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



29 



special advocates term it, u to enable her to compete with 
the pauper labour of Europe*" 

But it is more especially with reference to the promo- 
tion of goodwill among the nations, and the establishment 
of harmonious relations between the great families of man, 
that we earnestly urge the policy of Free Trade upon the 
attention of Peoples and Governments. The American 
tax on imports, for instance, we regard as a direct injury 
to the producer of the article taxed, by forcibly robbing 
him of his customers. 

The war now raging, by plunging the nation into debt, 
i 

compels the levying of higher and higher duties. With 
an export tax on cotton, and increased rates on Manches- 
ter muslins, the English manufacturer will find his candle 
burning at both ends, and his substance melting away, 
and all in consequence of a civil war contest, by which 
commerce is paralysed, while the Governments of Europe 
continue to look on in passive neutrality ! But, ask the 
sophists of Selfism, have not all Governments the absolute 
right, not only to regulate their internal affairs, but to 
adopt whatever restrictive measures they please touching 
trade and intercourse with foreign nations? Most as- 
suredly they have that sort of arbitrary right which is 



30 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



based on might, and if they take for their rule of faith 
and practice the doctrine which ignores the existence of 
any other being, or any other body outside of themselves, 
recognizing the Supreme Ego as the fountain and finality 
of duty, they may pile on prohibitory tariffs, until every 
nation becomes walled in, or walled out, and thus isolated 
from the rest of the world. This would be the result of 
" protection " carried to its extreme limit ; and yet it 
would be only the exercise of the abstract, legal right 
which every man has to build a wall around his house, 
barricade his doors, board up his windows, and refuse to 
have any further dealings with his neighbours. Upon the 
principle that every man's house is his castle, and that the 
precincts and premises of his domicile are sacred and con- 
secrated to his own sole w use and behoof for ever," as the 
legal phrase goes, every misanthropic churl has the right 
thus to immure himself and to die in the dungeon of his 
own despotic exclusiveness. Such on a larger scale is the 
national non-intercourse policy of China and Japan, a 
policy which all the Western Powers, claiming a superior 
civilization, have very unanimously agreed to disrespect ; 
and consequently proceeded to overcome those ancient 
mural obstacles to free trade by the argument of European 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 31 

cannon. There is very little difference of principle be- 
tween paper impediments, and obstructions of wood and 
stone to the free ingress of trade and travel into the ports 
and territories of foreign countries ; and the right to shut 
out the world by high walls, though apparently more 
hostile, is quite as well founded as the more refined 
and diplomatic method of excluding men and mer- 
chandise by legislative enactment. We have heard 
strong reasons urged against American and European 
intervention in China. It was wrong, say a certain class 
of theorists, to disturb an ancient and happy people, 
whose empire was in its glory before our " antiquity" was 
begun ; who wanted nothing from " outside barbarians," 
with whom contact was contamination ; whose philosophy 
was incomprehensible, and whose religion was heathenism. 
But the "Western Powers, acting from a higher sense of 
the obligations to each other of the different members of 
the human family, claim the right of breaking the win- 
dows of barbarism to let in the common air and sunshine. 
Western civilisation, like the light of Christianity, is not 
to be hid under a bushel. In its very essence it is expan- 
sive and proselytizing. Like the radiance of the sun, it 
must go forth to dissipate the darkness and gladden every 



32 THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 

corner of the world with its share of the common day. 
There must be no monopoly in the excellence of the arts 
— no secret in the revelations of religion. Knowledge and 
wisdom must circle with the sun ; while the great fami- 
lies of nations, living as neighbours, whether near or 
remote, must cultivate neighbourly and friendly relations. 
And this they cannot do by pointing their guns at each 
other's windows, or by shaking their fists in each other's 
faces. 

There is an instinct of duty as well as a sense of right 
in the consciousness of every intelligent mind ; and upon 
this milder emotion of benevolence we found all our argu- 
ments in favour of peace, and all our hopes of the free and 
friendly intercourse of nations, which represent in the 
grand aggregate but the multiplied sense and sentiments 
of the individuals of which they are composed. The doc- 
trine of free trade is the philanthropic spirit of brother- 
hood embodied in legislation ; and sent as a token and a 
pledge of amity in every bale of merchandise that passes 
" duty free " from one country to another. Let the white- 
winged messengers of commerce fly over every sea, and 
upon the wings of every wind, until the surplus of each 
satisfies the wants of all. Not only are the products of 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 33 

the earth thus freely interchanged, but knowledge and 
benedictions also ; while mutual profits create mutual 
riches. 

It would not be easy to compute the saving in money, 
were the nations simultaneously to cease arming and 
adopt the Christian policy of universal peace. The " Blue 
Books " of the various Governments might show us the 
annual cost of standing armies and floating navies; but 
the gross amounts which have been invested and wasted, 
from time immemorial, in arms and armaments, with the 
interest thereon, would be a sum beyond the computa- 
tions of arithmetic; and in order to get nearer to the 
" dead loss" of war, we should add to this sum the wealth 
that might have been created by the employment of all 
these men and means in the cultivation of the useful and 
the peaceful arts of life. Next to this enormous military 
debt, the cost of collecting revenues is one of the heaviest 
items for which the people are taxed under the head of 
c f Government Expenditure." Custom-houses and custom- 
house officers, after the military establishment, are the 
most expensive and least compensating of all public insti- 
tutions. Why not, then, abolish them at once by mutual 
consent, and proclaim the great reform of Universal Free 

c 



34 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



Trade ! Like the suggestion to disarm the nations, the 
time may come when this great leap in the progress of 
civilization may be seriously contemplated. 

While writing these pages the important news reaches 
us, that Austria is negotiating to enter the Zollverein, 
thereby bestowing the benefits of the great reform upon 
her 35,000,000 of people. Custom-houses and passports 
will then be abolished along the whole frontier, from the 
Baltic to the Adriatic ; and the day is not far distant 
when the blessings of free trade and free travel will 
be established throughout Europe. Instead of being 
called upon to show his passport thirty-eight times in 
making the tour of Germany, and each time to fee an 
official, the untaxed and unrestricted traveller may pass 
unimpeded from State to State, under the benign freedom 
and political unity of the Germanic Federation. United 
Italy has also swept away the annoying impediments; and 
these great strides of progress in the Old World promise 
much in the way of compensation for the losses occasioned 
by the retrograde movement and commercial prohibition 
of the New. While the United States of America are 
closing their doors, and adopting the hostile system of 
non-intercourse, United Italy and United Germany are 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 35 

opening their ports, removing their barricades, and inviting 
all the world to the hospitalities of free trade and friendly 
intercourse. Do we go too far in asserting that this is one 
of the most hopeful and significant signs of the times; and 
is it too much to claim for the system of free trade that 
it infuses the spirit of Christianity into the diplomacy 
and the laws of nations, into the commerce and intercourse 
of the world ? Surely there is reason to hope that the 
day is coming, when this benevolent and pacific policy 
will be firmly established between all the Powers of Europe. 

But the human race, down to the present time, does not 
seem to comprehend its own drift ; it does not understand 
very clearly either its origin, its object, or its destiny; and 
even the pioneers of the great human procession know 
not whence they come, nor whither they go, save into 
" the valley of the shadow of death/' In the youngest 
member of the family of nations — among a people furthest 
advanced towards the setting sun ; and who, following the 
course of the u Star of Empire, that Westward takes its 
way," should be the farthest removed from the ages and 
the deeds of darkness — we behold the devastation of civil 
war, and no hand or voice of Power is raised to separate 
the combatants ! Is it possible that England, with her 

c 2 



36 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



claim of motherhood towards these contending brothers, 
can longer look on without protest or remonstrance ! 
Are the parties to be left to fight on to the bitter end, 
like the famous cats of Kilkenny, leaving only their 
bloody remnants upon the battle field ? 

In regard to the folly and wickedness of this war there 
can be but one opinion, even among the most truculent 
disciples of the sword. All the world now looks upon the 
great American quarrel not only as a nuisance that ought 
to be abated, but as an unmitigated evil that ought to be 
suppressed. It has not even the poor plea of necessity — 
that common cloak for personal and national sins — to de- 
fend it. Even the most stony-hearted of Stoics who in- 
sist that every people must be purified by fire and pass 
through a Red Sea on their way to the promised land, and 
who advocate war as a providential means of destroying the 
underbrush of nations, who speak of soldiers as u food for 
powder," and of the corpses of the slain as " manure for 
the grain field/ 5 can find no excuse for this madness in 
America. We search in vain through all history for its 
justification by precedents ; the monstrous carnage stands 
alone in magnitude and misery. 

We have already alluded to the popular belief in Ame- 



EUROPE AND AMERIC A. 3 7 

rica that the monarchies of Europe are rejoicing in the 
overthrow of the Republic ; and to the views and feelings 
entertained by certain classes in regard to monarchical 
institutions, and more particularly to those of England. 
Having described the unfriendly elements existing in the 
United States, and the radical proclivities of the King- 
hating masses, it is but just that some mention should be 
made of another, and far more thoughtful, not to say 
higher class of American citizens, who, instead of cherish- 
ing feelings of hostility to the u Mother Country/' are 
quite as loyal to the great principles of the British Govern- 
ment, as the most devoted subjects of the British crown. 
At the time of the separation of the Thirteen Colonies 
there were many zealous loyalists in America as well as 
many open rebels in England ; and from that day to this a 
large proportion of what may still be termed the u gentry" 
of the United States have never ceased to regret the 
severance of the political tie that bound them to the 
land of their fathers. The ci Tories" of the Revolution, 
whose friendly " Blue lights 5 ' guided many a British man- 
of-war into American ports on many a dark night, during 
the seven years' struggle between the old spirit of Empire 
and of Independence, still have their legitimate descend- 



38 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



ants and representatives in every State of the old Union, 
and in every town of the new Confederacy. In 1776, 
these Tories, in the estimation of the Colonial rebels, were 
traitors only fit for the gallows. In 1862, the friends and 
advocates of a peaceful separation, or adjustment of diffi- 
culties between the North and the South, are similarly 
judged and treated by the military despotism of the Union, 
in the new struggle between the lust of Empire and the 
love of Independence ! In both epochs the loyalists, the 
men of peace, the Conservatives who had more to lose 
than to gain by war, have been denounced and doomed as 
traitors to their country, and as enemies of mankind. 
Nevertheless, a few such grains of salt still exist, even in 
the land of u universal freedom §?' patriotic and conscien- 
tious men, who stubbornly refuse to bend the knee to the 
idols of Democracy. We find gentlemen of this school 
to-day sprinkled all over the United States; but their 
voices are seldom heard amidst the contention of parties 
and the roar of battle. They are derisively designated by 
stump orators and partizan newspapers as " gentlemen of 
the old school/ 5 aristocrats, or by whatever epithet of op- 
probrium best if tickles the ears of the groundlings." But 
the most effective of all charges against the " ruffled shirt 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



39 



gentry" is, that they are guilty of cherishing feelings of 
friendship for Great Britain, that detested despotism 
" whose oppressions planted the Colonies in America/ 5 
whose cruel taxation drove them to the war of Indepen 
dence, and whose irrepressible hatred of her Republican 
offspring leads to the continual plotting for their destruc- 
tion ! This more refined and respectable class of amicable 
gentlemen are never heard boasting, by tongue or pen, of 
the super- excellent character of their country or their in- 
stitutions, because however admirable the Republican 
system may be in theory, they are too familiar with its 
practical imperfections and abuses to indulge in the dis- 
agreeable habit of exalting themselves above their neigh- 
bours ; and while partakers with England of the benefits of 
a common Law, the luxuries of a common Literature, and 
the inspirations of a common Religion, they can never 
participate in the vulgar animosity of the masses of their 
countrymen against the land of their ancestors. 

And what are these international repugnances, when 
carefully analysed, but the sum total of individual preju- 
dices — the offspring of mutual ignorance rather than of 
mutual acquaintance ? If America hates " John Bull" 
for his flunkeyism, England turns up her nose at " Brother 



40 THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 

J onathan" for his bad manners. The one despises powdered 
wigs, and the other dislikes tobacco chewing and expecto- 
ration. The one is despised for his unmanly servility to 
superiors in rank, and the other for his impertinent swag- 
ger and obtrusive independence. And it is owing to these 
personal differences and social disagreeabilities, rather than 
to any political antagonisms between the Constitutions of 
the two Governments that England and America are in 
danger of coming into collision. If a man offends us by 
bad manners and ungracious words, we are far more likely 
to become his enemy than on account of any peculiar 
opinions, political or religious, he may entertain, however 
adverse to our own. People who travel in foreign countries 
become liberal-minded and cosmopolitan ; while those who 
never look beyond their native hills, and think " the visual 
line that girts them round the world's extreme/' live and 
die encrusted in their own prejudices. The Esquimaux be- 
lieve that Greenland is the fairest country on which the 
sun shines. The feelings entertained by large masses of 
untravelled Americans and Englishmen respecting each 
other are about as self-complacent and reasonable. Both 
seem to be perpetually returning thanks that they are not 
as other people are, especially as this poor Republican, or 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 41 

as this proud Royalist, as the case may be. Self-satisfac- 
tion is a very comfortable feeling, but when personal, or 
national complacency runs into a sort of political phari- 
saism, its destiny is clearly predicted in the words of the 
Book of Wisdom : r< Pride goeth before destruction, and 
a haughty spirit before a fall." We have shown that the 
masses in America regard England as haughty, superci- 
lious, and tyrannical; and they mean " to take the starch 
out of her," as soon as they have arranged their little 
difficulties at home. 

England regards America as a grand braggadocio, vain, 
insolent and aggressive ; and these mutual antipathies, we 
repeat, arise more from ignorance of each other's character 
and from bad manners, than from bad motives. On both 
sides the views, feelings, and wishes of the better classes, 
and of what should be the governing classes, are persis- 
tently misrepresented, and misunderstood. It is a great 
misfortune that the men at the head, and the pilots at the 
helms, of both nations have never interchanged domiciliary 
visits. If Lord Palmerston, Louis Napoleon aad Jefferson 
Davis could pass a social evening with President Lincoln, 
in the " White House," over a bottle of " old Bourbon," 
(a pacificating, humanizing, fraternizing spirit, which 



42 



THE FLAG OF TRUCK. 



Prince Napoleon, during his recent visit to the United 
States, confessed to have liked better than anything he 
ever met bearing that name) we have no doubt but a de- 
claration of peace would follow, and the portentous war- 
clouds now hanging over both hemispheres disappear. In 
the absence of such a friendly gathering, let all the Powers 
of Europe send Ambassadors of Peace to the courts and 
camps of the belligerents, entreating for an armistice, in 
the name of humanity, while a Congress of Nations as a 
Court of last Appeal, is summoned together to decide on 
the merits of the questions at issue. 

And this brings us more directly to a consideration of 
the duties which England and France owe to the unhappy 
Republic over the sea. Shall this frightful war be stopped, 
or shall the victim be left to die in the delirium tremens of 
war and carnage ? The non-interventionists would leave 
him alone, like the gladiator in the arena — a pitiful spec- 
tacle, on no account to be interfered with, lest an interrup- 
tion of the mortal agony should spoil a Roman holiday. 
Already more than 200,000 men have perished in this 
miserable strife ; and yet the Powers of Europe extend no 
friendly, mediatory hand to restrain or separate the com- 
batants ! Words of kindness and of reason, we are told, 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



43 



would not be heeded by either party, while the first de- 
monstration of active interference, from whatever quarter 
it might come, would be met by an immediate declaration 
of war against the intermeddling Power. Arbitration on 
the part of France has been proposed to the Government 
at Washington and refused, notwithstanding the venerated 
memory of Lafayette and Rochambeau ; and any pacific 
suggestion from England would be received with diploma- 
tic discourtesy and popular disdain. Nations have no 
right to meddle with each other's domestic affairs : this is 
the constantly reiterated dogma put forth on every hand 
as an apology for non-intervention. But we have endea- 
voured to show the fallacy, or at least, the impolicy of this 
doctrine, by asserting the existence of a higher right, and a 
nobler impulse, springing from a sense of moral duty ; and 
without seeking authority in the legal permissions of inter- 
national codes, or popular creeds, we shall venture to in- 
sist on the right of international recognition, as one not to 
be disputed, and that the exercise of this right on the part 
of England and France (all other Governments will follow 
their lead), is the only possible means of bringing this 
wretched American war to a speedy and permanent termi- 
nation. 



44 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



When the great Republic was split asunder by the throes 
of Secession, eleven of the sovereign States of the Union, car- 
rying a population of some 12,000,000 out of 30,000,000, 
with a territory of 800,000 square miles, and larger than 
all Western Europe, formed a new Union, under an im- 
proved Constitution, which they called " The Confederate 
States of America." Under this new Government, a little 
more conservative, but not less essentially republican than 
the old Union, the Confederate people of the South have 
lived and fought, and bled and died for eighteen months, 
in defence of their independence, acknowledging allegiance 
to no other Power, and recognizing the existence of no 
other laws for the regulation of society, the administration 
of justice, and the general management of civil and mili- 
tary affairs. And yet they remain unrecognized by all 
other nations, except as a belligerent Power, or People. 
But in recognizing the Confederates as belligerents, why 
not go one step further, — and a logical step it would be, — 
and recognize them as an organic political body, a People, 
a Government de facto, if not quite dejure ? This would 
only be acting in accordance with England's boasted love 
of fair play, and without espousing the cause of either 
party. It would only place the belligerents, externally, 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



45 



and in relation to Foreign Powers on a footing of just equa- 
lity. The recognition of a Government involves representa- 
tion and diplomatic relations with foreign countries. But 
Europe refuses to receive the Ministers of the Confederacy, 
consequently the South has no official advocate abroad, 
while the North has its diplomatic pleaders and special 
agents at every Court in Europe. And not only are the 
ears of Kings and Cabinets open to the representations of 
the North, but all the ports and markets of the world are 
open to its commerce ; while the forges and manufactories 
of every land are employed in supplying them with the 
means and instruments of death. Is this fair play ! With 
all these fearful physical odds in favour of the Northern 
Government, while all the moral sympathies of the 
world are in favour of a peaceful separation — the simple 
act of recognition, instead of being a casus belli, would be 
approved, even in the North, by men of " wisest censure" 
as an act of duty and of justice, and in strict accordance 
with the precedents of nations. The United States have 
always been especially prompt to recognize every people 
" struggling for liberty," and not over-scrupulous about 
waiting for the credentials of a de facto government; whe- 
ther the bearer represents at Washington the result of the 



46 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



last head-and-tail-toss-up in Mexico; some improvised 
Republic in South America ; or, what Mr. Webster called, 
some "pea-patch province" in Europe. 

All the Great Powers have recognized from time to time 
the Governments of Brazil, Greece, Belgium, Lombardy 
and Italy ; and all these countries combined are of less 
importance, commercially, to England and France, than 
the Cotton culture alone of the Southern Confederacy. 
France, we are assured, is ready for the recognition ; 
but England is not — "letting I dare not, wait upon I 
would." And wherefore does she hesitate ? The answer 
to this question, which everybody is asking, may be 
gathered from the debates in Parliament, or the despatches 
of the Government. But these we propose to look into a 
little more critically hereafter. In the meantime, Eng- 
land, occupying as she does the very highest position 
among the nations of the earth, seated on her island throne, 
with her feet upon the seas, and her crown among the 
stars — England, whose meridian sun leaves no shadow on 
her Empire, has a sacred duty to perform in behalf of her 
own suffering people at home, and in behalf of her more 
sadly suffering offspring in America. 

To the humane instincts and Christian impulses of the 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 4? 

nation, rather than to the diplomatic policy of the Govern- 
ment* we look, and hope, and pray for some discreetly 
proffered, some wisely arranged interposition in behalf of 
peace. It has been clearly shown in the recent debate in 
Parliament on Mr. Lindsay^s motion for the Recognition of 
the Southern Confederacy as an independent, de facto 
Government, that the act of recognition is entirely con- 
sistent with the position of international neutrality ; and 
numerous instances were cited to show that while England 
and the United States had always been prompt to recog- 
nize new Governments, they had not thereby actively es- 
poused the cause of the new State, nor involved themselves 
in war with the old. The authority of Sir James Mackin- 
tosh, among English Statesmen, is strong and conclusive 
on this point. He says : — 

"I wish to add one striking fact on the subject of re- 
cognition. The United States of America accompanied 
their acknowledgment with a declaration of their determi- 
nation to adhere to neutrality in the contest between Spain ¥ 
and her colonies. A stronger instance cannot be adduced 
of the compatibility of recognition and neutrality." 

In 1849, the United States, under the administration of 
President Taylor, sent an envoy to Hungary with instruc- 



48 



THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 



tions to recognize the revolutionary Government if it main- 
tained its position for only thirty days ; and in the famous 
controversy with Austria which followed, conducted by 
Chevalier Hulseman and Mr. Webster, the latter declared 
that "independent Governments were recognized by the 
leading countries of Europe and by the United States be- 
fore they were acknowledged by the State from which 
they had separated/' And no sentiment ever uttered by 
Mr. Webster was more applauded by the American demo- 
cracy than this declaration. But we need not quote 
authorities, nor point to precedents, since Lord Palmerston 
concedes the whole argument in the following extract 
from his speech in the House of Commons on the 18th of 
July last : — 

ec But then, many people who talk of acknowledgment 
seem to imply that that acknowledgment, if made, would 
establish some different relations between this country and 
the Southern States. But that is not the case. Ac- 
knowledgment would not establish a nation unless it were 
followed by some direct active interference. Neutrality, 
as was well observed by the right hon. gentleman opposite, 
is perfectly compatible with acknowledgment. You may 
be neutral in a war between two countries whose inde- 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 49 

pendence you never called in question. Two long-estab- 
lished countries go to war; you acknowledge the inde- 
pendence of "both, but you are not on that account bound 
to take part in the contest." 

The question recurs then with an urgency that will be 
heard — why delay the recognition ? Again, we can only 
refer to Ministers and to Parliaments for an answer. We 
have already adverted to the experiment of a combined 
offer of mediation on the part of the Great Powers addressed 
in the spirit of friendship and of neutrality to the contend- 
ing parties. Should these words of kindness be unheeded, 
then recognition might follow ; and neither the recommen- 
dation of an armistice, nor the recognition of the Con- 
federacy would be a cause for complaint or hostility on the 
part of the North, On the contrary, we are assured by high 
authorities, by gentlemen of the best intelligence and largest 
influence in the Northern States, that the conservative 
and wealthy class of citizens on both sides, would hail such 
an act of friendly interposition with delight. The recent 
disasters before Richmond have convinced the Govern- 
ment at Washington that the South cannot be subjugated. 
Of course, it would not be prudent, or politic to make 
public confession of this opinion ; but such we happen to 

D 



50 THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 

know is the conviction and the conclusion of a majority 
of the Federal Cabinet ; and such is the conviction, also, 
that is beginning to manifest itself in the city of New 
York. The tc Great Union Meeting/' as the friends of 
peace had to call it, recently held in that city, was nothing 
less than the initial movement for a peaceable separation. 
That immense mass meeting of the opposition elements to 
the Lincoln Administration, took the specific form of 
Anti- Abolitionism, and its w Resolutions," while proclaim- 
ing devotion to u the Union as it was, and to the Consti- 
tution as it is,'' were specially directed against such 
" organs" as the New York Tribune, and such Generals 
as John Brown Hunter, whose " coloured brigades" have 
so deeply disgusted the better portion of the Army of the 
North. While the love of the Abolitionists for the " irre- 
pressible nigger," is not sufficient to allow their u coloured 
brethren" seats in the same carriages, chairs at the same 
table, nor pews in the same church with themselves, it is 
hardly strange that anti-abolition officers refuse to com- 
mand companies of 6< contrabands," that surgeons refuse to 
nurse them in hospitals, or that even privates refuse to fight 
side by side with them in the ranks. Europeans, especially 
the English, who deem it no disgrace to be seen in public 



EUROPE AND AMERICA. 51 

with the most unmitigated "woolly heads" can hardly ap- 
preciate the " natural repugnance" which every white man 
in America feels, particularly in the North, at being placed 
on any sort of equality with the African race. As servants, 
and servants only, are they everywhere regarded in the 
United States, even by the most zealous emancipationists ; 
while a case of practical amalgamation fills a whole State 
with undisguised disgust. The greased cartridges of India 
were not more distasteful to the Sepoys, than is the odour 
of a negro soldier to the nostrils of his white " companion 
in arms/' be he low Dutch, or still lower Irish. 

It follows, therefore, that for every coloured company of 
straggling " contrabands" raised in the South whole regi- 
ments will become cc disaffected" in the North ; the 300,000 
additional men called for by President Lincoln, will not 
u volunteer," and the experiment of " drafting 99 is one 
that the Governors of the States will be afraid to adopt. 
The very crisis, we insist, invites intervention, not of arms, 
but of arbitration, or at least, advice; and as an eminent 
authority writes us from New York, such intervention 
" would be heartily welcomed by thousands in the North, 
while the masses, as in the giving up of the Trent prisoners, 
would grin and bear it." Fortunately for the peace of 



52 THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 

Europe, the rabid and reckless portion of the American 
press has not the power to declare war, nor the means to 
furnish " the sinews." 

Let the strong and friendly hands of France and England 
hold out the Flag of Truce, and gently wave the comba- 
tants apart. The sight of the olive leaf will be welcome 
in the midst of the red deluge, to our bleeding brethren 
over the sea ; and whatever result may follow so kind an 
act, inspired by so good a motive, every Frenchman and 
every Englishman will have the high satisfaction of feeling 
that France and England have done their duty. 

Blessed are the Peace-makers. 



THE END. 



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